r/Vintagetools

Hey everyone,
I recently posted a bit about this collection in a Proto tools group and received incredibly positive feedback for trying to preserve its history. However, I need to be completely transparent about a major roadblock we’ve hit.
Despite launching a digital archive to showcase everything, our website traffic has hit zero over the last few days. Our physical storage space and time limits are officially maxed out. Our ultimate goal is to place this incredible piece of mid-century industrial history into a museum, university, or corporate archive intact as a single, complete collection.
Unfortunately, we’ve had no luck finding an institution yet. If we cannot secure an institutional home soon, we will be forced to liquidate the collection through small lots or single-item sales.
Breaking up this complete historical record—separating the rare 1960s Indy 500 reels from the thousands of Proto corporate photos, original marketing materials, and classified WWII engineering documents—is the absolute last thing we want to do. We have dedicated a massive amount of time, energy, and curatorial care to organize, summarize, and digitize this archive. It offers an unparalleled record of 20th-century American manufacturing, bridging classified WWII aerospace engineering and pioneering corporate craftsmanship.
How this community can help right now:
Do you have institutional connections? If you have any relationships or direct contacts at academic libraries, tool/industrial history museums, or aerospace archives, please introduce us.
Do you know an organization that should buy this? If you know an institution looking to secure a rare piece of American industrial heritage, point them our way immediately.
Give us your input: Have you successfully placed an industrial archive before? Are we reaching out to the wrong people? We welcome your advice, ideas, and leads in the comments.
Let’s work together to keep this history alive and whole before we run out of time.
👇 I am dropping the link to the full digital archive in the first comment below. Please check it out, take a look at the history, and share it with anyone who might have a lead.

Picked up for the best price of free it works I just can’t id it

Hey all, not sure on dates for these 2 surface gauges.

I got them in a job lot auction with lots of lathe tooling.

Cleaned them both up and ready to be put back to work.

They both looked pretty bad when I got them, happy with how they came out!

I picked this beauty up for "free" the other day. Made some repairs for a customer and got it in trade. "Free"=$20 in parts and an hour of my time. I did not plug it in to test it. Even if I spend $200 restoring it. It is well worth it to me!

Howdy y’all. I have this 1940s Montgomery ward bandsaw that I recently stripped and refurbished and used all purpose machine grease on all the moving parts. While I was using it I noticed the top wheel was shedding the liquified grease and now the wheel doesn’t spin freely. Does anyone know what I should used to properly lubricate the wheels on this machine? There are no ball bearings , it is simply a rod in a (brass/bronze?) tube.

Seems these have always been in our garage. I am 72 and remember using them when I was a kid. Since then they have just been laying in this same tray.
Thought I'd clean some of them up and share here. Some are in really bad shape!
And that one socket- 19/32" huh?

I always walk away with something big! I've been after one of these for years.

I’ve been trying to find a carb for this saw and can’t seem to find really anything other than pictures.

I have an old shed on my property, I've been here 20yrs and the place was empty for about 5 yrs before I moved in. The shed is in horrible shape so i'm finally cleaning it out to demolish it. I've found some rusty tools and an old speaker. I have discovered it's really fun to find things and clean them up some and learn about them. I have a collection of some of the bigger tools I found and would appreciate and general knowledge I can get. I've googled some things but it's always nicer to get information from an actual person. Are they worth cleaning up, not just monetary wise? I vinegar soaked and lightly cleaned some wrenches I found and that was very satisfying but these objects are much bigger so idk where to start.

Just picked this Smithy 1220 lathe and mill combo.

Every surface was rusted and every action was frozen, broken belts you name it.

A couple cans of WD40, a scraper, some scotch rite, and a heavy deadblow hammer and it's all functional. Downloaded the manual and picked up some tooling from a buddy. Ready to make some chips!

I’m hoping I’ve finally found the right people to ask about this.

We found this old post drill in a garage and I’m not sure what to do with it or where to go to possible sell it. If I don’t sell, I may even restore myself but don’t have the experience. The gears all work surprisingly well and if greased would be buttery smooth. The vertical action is exactly that, crazy smooth.

Even though I have the manufacturers mark on the side I’ve had all sorts of trouble even locating it. It’s an incredibly impressive tool and I’d prefer to keep it, but if not, tips on where to go to sell it would be helpful!

My old circular saw makes a weird noise. I think bearings or dries up grease? Motor looks almost brand new and brushes are pretty good along with commutator. Makes noise with brushes out. When taking rotor out while it’s still connected to gearbox sound is still there?

It is an American Chain Company vise. 5" jaws , maybe 80 pounds. I can find acco. vises ,but I can't find the #12 . I was just wondering if anyone had any more information about it.

So, has anyone ever seen a double edged back saw? Handle swivels for rip or crosscut.

I've known this saw in my family for 65 years, and never seen another like it. No markings of any kind.

Bought at a garage sale but cant make out the manufacturer

I found this in the attic. Something interesting?

I’ve got an old turn of the century apple grinder and press that I’m hoping to restore and of the critical tasks, refinishing the wood in the grinder head as well as replacing the sheet metal tooth sets are high on my priority list. I’ve got the assembly between the cast huge loose from the hubs (8 flathead countersink wood screws), but I’ve got to get either the flywheel and hub off one end or the spur gear and hub off the other end.

Trying to get an idea of best practices to remove the spur gear and hub assembly. Both are held on the shaft by what appear to be tapered shaft keys, but they’re shoulderless. I booped the keys on the spur gear side and the flywheel side with some aerokroil and the joints drank it up.

I’m guessing a heavy duty set of diagonal wire cutters to grab the key and a wedge to drive between the pliers and the face of the spur gear and hub is going to be the right approach but I’d love to hear alternatives if there are better options.